Great Lake
It’s a tiny little park compared to neighboring giants, but Waterton Lakes National Park packs more within its borders than most.
Cradling rare plants found nowhere else and plopped on a wildlife corridor, the 52-square-mile park unites mountains, prairies and lakes in Alberta’s second-windiest location. Despite the larger mass of Banff and Jasper national parks, Waterton holds the deepest lake and oldest exposed sedimentary rock in the Canadian Rockies.
Christened Canada’s fourth national park in 1895, Waterton is a place to drive little and explore lots.
Its namesake lake dominates the park, serving as a pathway to Glacier National Park’s remote northern trails. Only two short roads – Akamina and Red Rocks parkways – pierce the interior, both gateways to numerous lakes, waterfalls, canyons, trails and wildlife.
An hour from St. Mary, Mont., and 30 miles south of Pincher Creek in southwest Alberta, Waterton tucks itself on the Continental Divide’s eastern flank, where mountains and prairies collide in a floral frenzy; 22 rare species, such as moonworts, grow only within its borders.
It’s one of the few North American ecosystems where grizzly bears forage fringes of their original grasslands. No wonder Waterton is recognized as a Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site.
Driving into Waterton is a thrill. From rolling grasslands, the Rockies jut skyward like an overbuilt fortress.
As you round the five-mile entrance road amid pink shooting stars and horsemint, the Prince of Wales Hotel stands alone – impressive atop a knoll backdropped by a mixture of lake and peaks. While the five-storied, steep-roofed hotel commands attention, it’s dwarfed by the scenery’s sheer size.
Like a fairy tale fiefdom, the historic hotel presides over the Waterton Townsite, which bustles on summer days with shoppers, bicyclists, backpackers, boaters and campers.
For historic park hotels, the Prince of Wales has it all: floor-to-ceiling lobby windows yielding a drop-dead view, unique “parkitecture” reminiscent of Swiss chalets, and such charming attributes as thin walls, an upper structure that sways in high winds, small bathrooms that were once closets, and a cantankerous elevator.
It’s a long walk up to the fifth floor, but, oh, the views.
“You can’t beat the location,” says Stacey Bengtson, an annual Waterton visitor from West Glacier, Mont. “I always feel I’m in Europe.”
Built in 1927 by Great Northern Railway as part of its Glacier Park chain, the Prince of Wales Hotel stood apart from its sisters: During Prohibition, it attracted guests because of Canada’s legalized alcohol.
The bone china in the gift shop, kilted bellman and high tea are reminders of Canada’s long connection with Britain. On the knoll outside, pose for a family vacation photo, but only when the winds drop from rages to breezes.
Between Cameron Falls, bursting from a fold in 600-million-year-old rock, and Upper Waterton Lake, the Townsite hovers on an alluvial floodplain. While winter residency squeaks to 100 people, summer burgeons to more than 2,000.
Built in the early 1900s as an oil town for a one-barrel-per-day well, the Townsite lived a short boom and was thankful when tourism took a foothold.
Most shops and restaurants cluster within a few blocks, where gift stores teem with moose and Royal Canadian Mounted Police themes as double surrey bikes from Pat’s Gas Station peddle by. It’s what Banff once was years ago.
Tourist mayhem hits in high summer, but as Lauren Baker of Waterton Visitor Services points out, the park sees only 300,000 annual visitors – or less than 20 percent of Glacier Park’s numbers.
The Townsite is also home to one of three Parks Canada campgrounds. Located smack in the hubbub, with little privacy, the Waterton Townsite Campground fills its 238 full-hookup sites in high summer. But in June, with few visitors, you can handpick prime lakeshore real estate; we pulled our camper into one such site for dining al fresco with a quiet lakeside sunset view.
If, however, a secluded, more remote, heavily timbered campground without hookups meets your style, head for Crandell Mountain Campground, sitting on Blakiston Creek four miles up Red Rocks Parkway.
Launching from the Townsite, a popular sightseeing tour boat crosses over the international boundary. When the Prince of Wales Hotel opened, Great Northern Railway also christened the M.V. International, a 250-passenger craft that putters several times a day to Goat Haunt, U.S.A., a small park service outpost in Glacier National Park.
En route, the tour guide offers a combination of natural history and humor.
“I always learn something new on the boat ride,” says Bengtson, “and I’m stunned to see so far into Glacier’s interior.”
While everyone debarks for 30 minutes in Goat Haunt, only U.S. and Canadian citizens may hike beyond the ranger station. Backpackers head toward Stoney Indian Pass while day hikers bust a lung chasing stunning views at Goat Haunt Overlook or slap mosquitoes while moseying to moose-haven Kootenai Lakes.
For most visitors, time permits walking to the petite International Peace Park Pavilion that celebrates Waterton-Glacier as the world’s first peace park in 1932.
High paths among the 120 miles of trails hide under snowfields until July. Every couple of years, we hike Carthew-Alderson, a 12-mile climb over a windswept, view-laden ridge to several rock-pocketed alpine lakes.
Conveniently, the trail ends in town. For easy logistics, longtime residents Lauren and Brian Baker of Waterton Visitor Services in Tamarack Village Square, the local outdoor shop, run daily shuttles to the Cameron Lake trailhead.
The trail transitions thick forest, sub-alpine huckleberry fields, and seemingly barren slopes where ptarmigan run for cover. Despite howling winds which have cowed us to crawling on hands and knees, miniature wildflowers inhabit Carthew Pass.
From the Townsite, four trails depart within walking distance. A one-hour climb zigzags to Bear’s Hump for a Waterton Valley panoramic view. The Prince of Wales Hotel appears peanut-sized, and the Townsite looks like an aerial map.
West of the campground, the Upper Waterton Lake trail waltzes south to Bertha Lake, passing two dramatic waterfalls on a 3.5-mile switchback trail; or across the 49th parallel, the international boundary, to Goat Haunt at 8.7 miles.
Starting in July, hikers shuttle across Upper Waterton Lake to Crypt Landing for an 11.2-mile round-trip hike to Crypt Lake. While the lake is an attractive destination, so are the trail’s famous ladder, tunnel and ledge walk.
Named for a British naturalist who never saw Waterton Lakes, the park abounds with wildlife. More than 250 avian species attract binocular-toting birders while 60 species of mammals comb the hillsides.
While 150 years ago it flourished with wild buffalo herds, today bison graze in the park’s paddock. Vehicles tour the paddock on a narrow, rolling, 2.5-mile loop to see the small herd of several adults and a few calves.
Departing from the Townsite, a 10-mile driving tour up Akamina Parkway ends at Cameron Lake – perfect for picnics, renting a canoe, or walking one mile to Grizzly Gardens, where bears forage on glacier lily bulbs or huckleberries.
The lake is another border phenomenon, with its southern beach crossing the boundary. Mt. Custer with its remnant glaciers sits on the U.S. side, while the lake’s bulk is Canadian water.
After an adventurous day, grab a buffalo burger and beer at Zum’s Eatery, which answers the family’s taste buds with a diverse menu. Save room for the wildberry pie – a mix of apple, rhubarb, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries.
“It’s must-eat homemade pie,” says Bengtson, who ensures her slice by ordering it with dinner.
If fine dining better satisfies hiker appetites, Kilmorey Lodge’s Lamp Post Dining Room serves up melt-in-your-mouth triple berry elk chops and world-famous Alberta beef. The international wine list is a winner, as is the Saskatoon pie, made from native Albertan serviceberries.
Tiny though it may be, as a day trip from its sister Glacier Park or a multi-day destination in itself, Waterton Lakes National Park packs in more than its share of things to do and see.
As Bengtson says, “Here, you’re surrounded by gorgeous mountains and beautiful lakes; we’re lucky it’s so close.”